Last month, the Food and Drug Administration announced that
it will promulgate new rules to ensure that seafood is free of bacterial and
viral contaminants that cause food poisoning.After years of foot-dragging and congressional criticism, the move has
been welcomed by consumer groups.

But the announcement amounts to little more than a
public-relations gambit to boost seafood sales, which have declined about 8%
since 1987 due largely to public concern over safety.Many of the most critical regulations have been in effect for
years under the National Shellfish Sanitation Program carried out by the states
and supervised by the FDA.Others have
already been widely adopted by industry.

The tough steps necessary to make seafood safe have yet to
be taken.

An estimated 60,000 people suffer seafood poisoning annually
mostly from consumption of raw shellfish.As for the FDA's touted crusade to save the public from alleged
bacterial and viral hazards in the rest of the seafood supply, that is tilting
at windmills.These contaminants are
often found on fin fish, but fin fish are usually cooked.A 1991 National Academy of Sciences
seafood-safety committee concluded that seafood filets and steaks almost never
cause bacterial or viral poisoning.

The academy committee, however, emphasized that seafood
poses serious chronic threats to our health:cancer and birth defects resulting from contamination with persistent
environmental toxins such as methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxin
and DDT.The bulk of this risk stems
from fish harvested from the Great Lakes, inland waterways and coastal bays and
estuaries.In contrast with the very
few who eat raw shellfish, this risk threatens almost the entire U.S.
population.

Studies in the Great Lakes region have demonstrated that
babies born to women who regularly eat PCB-contaminated fish have smaller birth
weight and head circumference and impaired neurological development.Furthermore, the academy conservatively
concluded that about 75 of every 1 million consumers are at risk for
cancer.The usual federal standard for
safety is 1 in 1 million.People who
subsist on fish and who fish in polluted waters, including many Native
Americans, are at even higher risk.

Totally ignored by the FDA, these delayed hazards could be
substantially reduced through regulation:

Labeling
and public education.Explicit
labeling would alert consumers to cancer- and birth-defect causing
contaminants.

Monitoring.The FDA monitors only a few fish, and
these for only a few carcinogenic and reproductive contaminants.Monitoring must be sharply expanded to
include comprehensive analysis for industrial pollutants such as
pesticides, dioxin, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, methylmercury and
radioactive contaminants.

Strengthening
environmental discharge regulations.Fish from even Alaska are now contaminated with dioxin, a potent
carcinogen, and other carcinogenic and reproductive toxins.In other coastal regions and inland
waterways, fish are contaminated with pollutants such as PCBs and
pesticides such as alcohol and atrazine.Tough regulations restricting agricultural and industrial
discharged must be promulgated.

Restricting
harvest in polluted areas.These hazards are posed by harvesting fish from inland waterways
including the Great Lakes and specific coastal regions such as greater
Boston Harbor and Santa Monica Bay.A 50% reduction in national exposure to carcinogens in fish could
be achieved by restricting harvesting from only 5% of the most
contaminated sites.

Tightening
allowable levels for methylmercury.FDA risk assessments for mercury-related birth defects are based on
shaky science.While Canada
rejects all fish with methylmercury levels over 0.5 parts per million,
U.S. guidelines allow twice this amount.Furthermore, about have of all swordfish—a major dietary source of
methylmercury—sold in supermarkets exceeds even lenient U.S. guidelines,
and, if consumed too frequently, may pose reproductive hazards.

Regulating
farmed fish.The nation's
burgeoning aquaculture industry has not been adequately regulated.Aquaculture feed should be certified to
be free from carcinogenic pesticides, antibiotics and other contaminants.

Consumer surveys have consistently found that the public is
intensely concerned about cancer hazards in the food supply.By following these recommendations, the FDA
can at last fulfill its obligation to ensure that our seafood supply is safe.

Dr. Samuel S. Epstein is professor of occupational and
environmental health at the University of Illinois School of Public Health and
chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition.David Steinman, a member of the NAS seafood safety committee, wrote
"Diet for a Poisoned Planet"(Ballantyne Books, 1992).